Playing Floaty Long Pips ball
Strokes
Rick August Asked 2 months ago
Playing someone with long pips has always been a challenge for me. I've seen the various videos on this topic and I understand the basic approach of alternating between pushing the chopped ball that my opponent gives me from my topspin stroke and hitting topspin on the bumped ball that my opponent gives me from my backspin shot. Often times the shots from my opponent can be low. I generally don't have much trouble pushing back the chopped ball which has some backspin on it but often times I hit the ball long when I topspin the bumped ball which comes to me as more of a floaty no spin ball especially if the shot is low. I recently found that I'm much more consistent on these floaty no spin balls if I brush them more with topspin. I'm not lifting them like hitting a topspin off of a backspin ball but I just need a good brush to get more topspin. It seems like the extra topspin helps bring my shots back down onto the table. Does this make sense to you?
Alois Rosario Answered 1 month ago
Hi Rick,
This makes perfect sense. This is something I see a lot of players having problems with. The action tells the mind that you should be lifting the ball but the long pimples have that different effect that you have to adjust to.
These floaty balls are tricky because they don't have much speed or spin on them. To counteract it you really have to brush over the top of the ball, almost the same action as against a blocked ball but also allowing for having to generate the speed yourself.
I tell players to even try to hit that ball into the net with topspin. That gives them the feeling of swinging forward and not being afraid of going lower with the shot.
Give it a try and let us know how you get on.
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The long pips opponent that I play is a very good player so he will bump these floaty balls so that they are low, relatively fast and with good placement. This makes it more difficult but if I get a good topspin brush on the ball, I seem to do pretty well getting them back.
D K Posted 1 month ago
Perfectly logical explanation,Rick.
You perfectly described why I tend to rather continue looping consecutively against longpips - because for me it is natural to perform a heavy lift during looping.
Looping without lifting is exponentially more mechanically difficult movement to perform for me :D
Hi Alois, my problem with these balls, is generating speed. Can you please advise the stroke I should be working on to attack these short/half long slow floaty balls. Thanks.
Hi Philip.
You need to use plenty of spin and you can either brush forward to try to generate the speed yourself or use a slower heavy spin topspin to try to get yourself in to a good position of the next ball. The main thing is to be decisive on this ball. If you just play it slowly with no spin or placement they will dominate the next ball.